All posts tagged Space

Rather than haul raw materials from Earth, the European Space Agency (ESA) is investigating the idea of using a 3D printer to build a base on the moon from moon dust.

It is working with a number of partners including the architecture firm Foster + Partners which has been responsible for many high-profile buildings including Wembley Stadium and “The Gherkin” in London, the Reichstag redevelopment in Berlin and New York’s Hearst Tower.

The plan for the moon base envisages taking an inflatable dome as a base then using a giant 3D printer to build a wall out of bricks of local regolith or moon dust to protect up to four astronauts from radiation and meteorites. PC Magazine reports:

Two satellites launched from French Guiana in South America on Friday represent a vital step in the European Galileo project to create a satellite navigation system more accurate than the current GPS system. The four satellites now in orbit are sufficient in number to be tested and validated ready for the deployment of another 14 by the end of 2014, and a total of 30 by 2018, as Space Daily reports.

With four identical satellites now in orbit, ESA [European Space Agency] will be able to demonstrate the performance of the Galileo positioning system fully before the deployment of the remaining operational satellites…

Only 24 people have been close to the moon, and the last of those was nearly 40 years ago. That may be about to change.

U.K.-based space-research company Excalibur Almaz hopes to make trips to the moon if not commonplace, then certainly more routine. It plans to use modernized Soviet-era space vehicles — of which it has six — to take people on missions around the moon.

But CEO Art Dula is keen to stress that this isn’t about space tourism — high-net-worth individuals seeking the ultimate holiday snaps. Some 520 people have taken manned flights into space, but those have all been orbiting the earth.

PARIS — Virgin Galactic is hopeful it will have a successful test launch of its space vehicle next year. After that, says the company’s CEO, it will be offering flights as soon as it gets clearance.

The problem with writing articles about space is that you almost automatically reach for cliches, the final frontier and all that. But the truth is that it is the final frontier that Virgin Galactic is hoping to exploit and it could be as soon as next year.

Virgin Galactic CEO George Whitesides is here at Le Web in Paris, Europe’s largest technology conference, presumably to spread the word and perhaps take bookings for what will be, when compared to the Russian space tourism offering, the budget provider or Ryanair of space.

To go into space with the Russians will set you back many millions of dollars. When Virgin Galactic finally launch it will cost you $200,000. And when will that be? “We hope to get into space next year,” he said.

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